A group led by Chicago Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf has filed a $148 million offer to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and keep the team in Glendale, Ariz., the NHL confirmed Friday.

"We're aware the offer has been made," NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said from the floor of the Entry Draft in Montreal. "We're pleased there's an offer to own and operate the Coyotes in Phoenix."

The offer was submitted in bankruptcy court documents on Friday afternoon. Reinsdorf's offer calls for a new Jobing.com Arena lease with the city of Glendale and unspecified new agreements with other creditors -- including the NHL, which has been funding the club.

Friday was the deadline set by Judge Redfield T. Baum for potential buyers who would keep the team in Arizona to submit purchase applications to the NHL.

well Reinsdorf sees this as a good buy low opportunity...expects to get the lease negotiated for a better deal...he's been a pretty successful owner, has interests in Glendale...

"It's a bad lease -- the team doesn't make as much as it should off parking, concessions and other potential revenue streams like the restaurants outside the building," the source said. "Glendale has to be amenable to reworking it. Otherwise they lose their major tenant and their building becomes a white elephant."
Reinsdorf has a good relationship with Glendale officials, who lured his White Sox from Tucson to Glendale as a spring tenant by building a plush training facility/ballpark, Camelback Ranch, that the White Sox share with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The documents also suggest Reinsdorf's group will seek more control of non-hockey events at the arena, which should produce additional revenue.

...Plus Reinsdorf has the NHL support to keep the team in Phoenix:

The NHL is confident it will prevail.
"Jerry Moyes is attempting to sell an opportunity he doesn't own," Daly said. "Before bankruptcy, he owned the rights to an NHL franchise in Glendale, Ariz. He does not own the rights to [one] in Hamilton, Ontario, because that franchise and those rights don't exist.
"Franchises cannot become free agents. The courts have upheld sports leagues' rights to control who owns franchises and where they operate."